Minister inaugurates 1st global moot on medical research

First International Medical Research Conference with the theme: "Transforming Health Care through Collaborative Research" was inaugurated by Minister Health Dr Sikandar Ali Mendhro at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro on Saturday. The chief guest Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro expressed that the University deserves a huge appreciation for organizing and raising the importance of collaborative research in our part of the world.
The conference will help to accomplish the goal of bridging laboratory research with clinical practice in order to provide best possible evidence based medicine to our ailing population. He added that the Ministry of Health Sindh is making consistent efforts to develop holistic approach to bridge gaps in health services delivery at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, with a balanced strategy focused on both preventive and curative medicine. We do appreciate that the improvement in health sector is virtually impossible without research.
He further said that the Health Ministry has always promoted and facilitated continues updating of knowledge of medical doctors so that they remain updated of the upcoming health related challenges and their solutions. Such events are the best occasions to provide an opportunity to upgrade their knowledge. Medical doctors working directly under umbrella of the Ministry of Health are the health care providers at the grassroots level.
In contrast Universities are considered as the factories of such health workers. Therefore the best product of these Institutions will automatically upgrade standards of our health care.
Earlier, while delivering the welcome speech the Vice Chancellor LUMHS Prof Noshad A Shaikh expressed that Research remains the mainstay for the progress of any Institution including medical universities. For Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences Research remains the prime priority. Translational Research is a bridge between basic and clinical sciences, where basic research findings are made applicable in clinical practice. It has been observed that there is a gap between basic and clinical research in our part of the world. Therefore this conference is widely themed as transforming health care through collaborative research, emphasizing that improving in healthcare is only possible through multidisciplinary research.
He added that this conference will provide a clear concept of significance of collaborative research. In order to do so we have organized 10 pre-conference workshops and a number of plenary sessions and free papers. This time we have also organized a good poster session as well. The Vice Chancellor informed that Medical Research Center at LUMHS is the home of all our research activities. It is well-equipped with infrastructure including high tech machines at molecular and genetic laboratory and also at multidisciplinary research laboratory. It also has advanced DNA laboratory which not only provides diagnostic facilities to the public but also facilitate judiciary in controlling terrorism.
The Chairperson Conference Dr Samreen Memon expressed that the objective of the conference is to facilitate common people of our society in terms of awareness and health care programs through collaborative research under multidisciplinary approaches. This conference could transform the mindset of our people, and bring a qualitative change in the community through a significant research in molecular biology, cell biology, cancer biology nanotechnology, medicine, surgery, anatomy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, public health, medical education and maternal child health.
She added that Liaquat University puts research at a top priority. We are proud that in the last 4 years, over 700 research articles by our faculty were published in peer-reviewed journals, both national and international. We have established a network of state-of-art Research Laboratories for our PhDs scholars. She informed that the translational research is gaining its potential over the last two decades. It is a dilemma that there is a huge gap between a clinical practice and a translational research.